Coronavirus stimulus bill contains ‘litany of outrageous items’: Sen. Toomey
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., discusses why he voted against the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief proposal.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., says Democrats are "rewarding their constituencies" by including a "litany of outrageous items" in the $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill. The bill passed in the Senate by a 50-49 vote, and the House is set to vote on the measure this week.
Toomey joined Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino on "America’s Newsroom" on Monday to weigh in on the relief proposal.
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SEN. PAT TOOMEY: Just look at the litany of outrageous items in this bill. It’s completely indefensible. Almost $2 trillion, on top of $4 trillion. By the way, of the $4 trillion that was already done last year, probably $1 trillion of it is not even spent yet.
This is about rewarding [Democrats’] constituencies. I mean, they voted on Saturday to make sure that the $1,400 stimulus payments go to convicted criminals serving time in prison. They voted specifically to make sure the payments go to … illegal immigrants, who are here illegally. There’s reparations for minority farmers that don’t have to demonstrate any financial stress or any adverse effect from COVID, but they’ll get 120% of whatever indebtedness they have just paid for by the taxpayer. But not if you’re a white farmer. It’s outrageous and, I think, unconstitutional. The list goes on and on.
[On reparations for minority farmers] That’s what it says in the bill, and I offered an amendment to strike that, because I think sending people large sums of money based on the color of their skin is outrageous and unconstitutional. But every Democrat voted against my amendment, so it’s still in the bill.
It’s very clear to me the radical left is driving this. Remember, let’s step back a second. A few weeks ago, 10 Republican senators marched down to the White House and offered President Biden on a silver platter, a bill that would have been well over $600 billion. And that was their starting point for negotiations. And, of course, as you know, 10 is a hugely significant number because together with the 50 Democrats, those 10 would have constituted the 60 votes needed to pass something on a bipartisan basis.
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President Biden could have had probably would have ended up over a trillion dollars, but there would have been some Republican input, and you wouldn’t have had these outrageous radical left provisions. President Biden never even pursued that, instead insisting that the AOC’s and the Bernie Sanders’ of the party had to get their way.
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